Squash: Samantha Cornett advances, Shawn Delierre ousted in five-set nail-biter finish

In Commonwealth Games squash action today, Canada’s lone female squash player Samantha Cornett (Deep River, Ont.) blew by her first round opponent this afternoon in three games (11-5, 11-7,11-7), earning a berth in the round of 16 on Friday.

Cornett, using her 5-foot-10 height to her advantage, kept Australian Sarah Cardwell dashing around the court with her better ball control as she powered to the win.

“It didn’t feel easy, it was a lot of running because she likes to run everything down,” said Cornett. “I had to extend the rallies as I know she gets tired after a little while so that helped my cause. She let some stuff go that maybe I would have played.”

Earlier today, Cornett was part of an international group of athletes who lunched with the Queen.

“The win was for the Queen!” Cornett said. “I had the lamb, I had a little bit of the custard. Another inspiration was a nice guy helping clean around here found a Canadian dollar bill on the steps so he gave that to me.”

Cornett will play Jenny Duncalf from England at 2 p.m. local on Friday in the round of 16.

Meanwhile, Montreal’s Shawn Delierre had an easy win in the morning against Moreaina Wai of Papua New Guinea, winning 11-0, 11-2, 11-5 in the round of 64.

Later this evening in the round of 32, Delierre took some time to adapt to the powerful and crafty play of Australia’s Ryan Cuskelly, very nearly losing in three games, until he dramatically surged in to contention and pushed the Aussie all the way to five games before losing by a mere three points (2-11, 2-7, 11-9, 11-8, 8-11).

“To come out there and be a little bit tossed and turned and put in a high quality game, I sort of fell behind,” said Delierre. “So I was just patient and the third was also close but I had a rhythm. Then we went on a ladder where a he went up a little bit, I went up a little bit and he pulled it out by a squeak.”

Delierre will now play in the consolation rounds, seizing the opportunity to play quality matches in preparation for the Pan American Squash Championships in Mexico in September.